Beginning Thursday, look for busy roadways in New England when 91 percent of the region’s estimated two million travelers drive 50 miles or more this Memorial Day, says AAA Northeast.
Meanwhile, Metro-North has changed its Friday schedule to make it easier for riders to leave the city between 1 and 4 p.m.
More People Traveling, AAA Says
Over the next two days, the nation’s major roadways will be very congested when drivers heading for vacation destinations mix with daily commuters and create delays that can be as much as two to three times longer than usual.
For example, in New England, the New York metro area will see heavier than normal congestion in the late afternoon tomorrow between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. while the worst time to travel in the Boston area is today between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
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— This article combines a Memorial Day weekend announcement from AAA Northeast with one from Metro-North. It also includes some information from New York City area airports (at the bottom).
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A strong economy is driving Americans to kick off what’s expected to be the start of a busy summer travel season.
Nationally, an estimated 41.5 million Americans — nearly 5 percent more than last year — will usher in summer beginning this week with:
- 88.2 percent — a total of 36.6 million people — Americans plan to travel by car;
- 7.5 percent — that’s 3.1 million — plan to fly; and
- 4.3 percent — 1.8 million — plan to take some other mode of transportation such as trains, buses, rails or cruises.
Despite the highest gas prices since 2014, vacationers aren’t canceling their road trips.
As of Tuesday, May 23 the national average for a gallon of self-serve regular is $2.95, 59 cents higher than this time last year; while on the state level, Connecticut’s average price cracked $3 last week and today averages $3.13, 62 cents higher than this time last year.
Metro-North Changes Weekend Train Schedules
To help you get a jump on the Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial start of summer — Metro-North Railroad has extra early getaway service on Friday, May 25 and plenty of trains to take you to your holiday destinations.
Friday, May 25:
On Friday, May 25, there are 17 extra “getaway” departures from Grand Central Terminal between roughly 1 and 4 p.m. Some late p.m. peak trains will be canceled/combined due to reduced ridership in this time period. All extra and cancelled trains are shown in the current timetable.
New Haven Line
Nine extra “getaway” trains will depart from Grand Central at:
- 12:58 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport, and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
- 2:01 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport, and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
- 2:28 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport, and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
- 2:31 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, New Rochelle, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Harrison.
- 2:56 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Stamford then all stations between Noroton Heights and South Norwalk.
- 2:59 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, New Rochelle, Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Harrison.
- 3:26 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, then all stations between New Rochelle and Harrison.
- 3:29 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Westport and all stations between Fairfield and New Haven.
- 4:00 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street, Stamford, and all stations between Bridgeport and New Haven.
The following trains from Grand Central will not operate or are combined:
- The 5:18 p.m. to Harrison and the 5:21 p.m. to New Rochelle are combined, departing Grand Central at 5:21 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street and all stations between Mount Vernon East and Harrison.
- The 5:41 p.m. to New Haven will not operate.
- The 5:57 p.m. to Harrison and 6:02 p.m. to New Rochelle are combined, departing Grand Central at 6:02 p.m., making all stops between Mount Vernon East and Harrison.
- The 6:07 p.m. to New Haven and the 6:13 p.m. to Bridgeport are combined, departing Grand Central at 6:13 p.m., stopping at Harlem-125th Street and all stations between South Norwalk and New Haven.
- The 6:49 p.m. to New Haven will not operate.
- The 7:09 p.m. to Harrison will not operate.
Saturday, May 26, to Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day)
On Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27, a regular weekend schedule will be in effect.
On Monday, May 28, Memorial Day, a Sunday schedule will be in effect on the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines.
Most connecting services will not operate on Memorial Day. However, the Tappan Zee Express will operate on a Saturday schedule.
Grand Central North will be closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
See our schedules page for train times.
[Information on Hudson and Harlem lines was removed from this announcement. For the full announcement, go to this Web page.]
Airports: Expect Crowds
“Close to a million passengers (850,300 estimated) are expected to pass through JFK Airport this Memorial Day weekend,” according to the airport’s Twitter account. “That’s quite a lot of people, right? Good idea to confirm your flight status before arriving at JFK, arrive early […]”
LaGuardia Airport says on Twitter: “An estimated 386,200 passengers are expected to use LGAirport this Memorial Day weekend (Friday, 5/25 — Tuesday, 5/29).
“Fuhgeddaboudit that’s a lot of fliers.
“Allow extra time for check-in/security […]”
Newark Airport tweets that “over a half-million passengers (estimated total of 624,300) are expected” at the airport from Friday through Tuesday.